Jonestown Conspiracy Essay

On November of 1978, the town of Peoples Temple in Guyana was the home of one of the most shocking tragedies outside of wartime. Jonestown, the community/communist cult, created by Jim Jones was involved in a mass murder/suicide in which the lives of the more than 900 inhabitants of the compound were lost. Although the catastrophic incident is catalogued as the non-natural second biggest loss of civilian lives in the United States after 9/11, very little information is known or written about the episode. Consequently, the lack of information, especially from governmental departments, has led to the formation of conspiracy theories that generate alternative explanations for the catastrophe. Some of the most popular ones believe in the involvement

The government offered the pertinent information regarding the event, though it did nothing to stop conspiracy theorist to assert their suspicions. Not all theories are still discussed today; however, the most popular beliefs related to the tragedy managed to survive until the present days. Those theories have several common elements, and are connected wirh the idea that CIA forces were the cause of the more than 900 murders in the complex.

In any conspiracy, theorists recollect massive amounts of evidence (Hofstadter, as cited by Moore, 2002), to create likely scenarios that provide satisfactory explanations of the events they investigate. In the case of Jonestown, the most widespread conspiracy related the events surrounding Jonestown explains how the catastrophe was actually an attempt to conceal evidence referent a mind control experiment performed by the CIA. The lines of reasoning that led to that assumption start with the analysis of their first piece of evidence:

1. The body count discrepancies between the Guyanese authorities and the American

Shootings of the moment previous the attack to the Congressman show Dwyer presence in the scene (Knight-Griffin). When Ryan and the others were killed, Dwyer was severely injured in the leg. However, there is also evidence that he was in the compound during Jones last speech. On the recording of the discourse, Jones clearly mentions Dwyer and asks for him to be removed of the scene (FBI No. Q 042). Though the evidence is very convincing, the fact is that both events occurred during a very brief period, and the possibilities of Dwyer being able to mobilize, injured, and through 8 miles of jungle, appear very unlikely. A commonly accepted explanation of the dilemma explains that Jim Jones, who was numbed because of various medical drugs he used to take, simply mistook Dwyer for somebody else (Lane 165). Therefore, though there is no denying of the coincidence of the facts, the premise continues to be an inductive